Man in MP's Jabalpur makes eco-friendly artwork with leaves, petals, tree bark

Nature enthusiast Basant Soni, switched to an eco-friendly option in order to save paper.

Since 1999, he has been creating organic pieces of artwork. Describing how he started it, Soni said, "My father taught me water painting. When we were in Kolkata, we used to receive bouquets on several occasions. That is when I started putting dry flowers to use in my artworks."

He also said that by switching to organic artwork, we are stopping reducing the cutting down of trees for paper, recycling, and reduce surface contamination.

Basant Soni creates his own canvases after processing the bark of three types of trees. Meanwhile, the art pieces are made by using different coloured flowers and leaves.

He has been teaching students for almost nine years.

"A single work of art takes about 10-15 days to finish, as the leaves, petals, and barks need to be processed first and then used," Soni told ANI.

According to him, these pieces of artwork give a 3-D effect when viewed from a certain distance.

"When coated with a layer of preservatives, these artworks last for years. After framing they look like any normal water or oil painting. An interesting fact is that when we view these artworks from a certain distance, they tend to give a 3-D effect," said Soni.

Describing one of his pieces of organic artwork of a cat, he said that it had been made by using the peels of onion and garlic, which a quick glance does not reveal.